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Online retail insurance – where can I get a quote

Monday, January 16th, 2012

Most UK business insurance companies separate the different types of trade they will cover into different segments. Each of these segments, if the business is substantial enough and the insurers cover enough, will probably warrant a separate policy. They will produce a base policy, which can be used to underwrite each individual type of trade. Rocket science is not involved in the names, you end up with commercial property owners, pubs, shops, hotels, restaurants, offices and takeaway package policies to name but a few.

These types of policies have been around since the 60’s and 70’s. This is when insurers realised it was not only easier for them (to offer trade specific contracts) but also led the individual tradespeople to think (rightly) they were being covered by a policy designed for them.

Hwoever, as time has moved on not all insurers have moved with the times and internet retail insurance is one of the prime examples. Most of the shop, retail or retailers policies are only available for the traditional high street retail type outlets. Heaven forbid if you actually sell from a website only and do not keep your stock in a shop premises. To us, as business insurance brokers, the risks are broadly the same. there are of course differences. There is less likelihood of a public liability insurance claim when you have no customers stepping foot on your premises. On the other hand, there may be an increased product liability risk if you are an internet retailer. You are more likely to be selling goods around the world than you would be from a shop.

In many cases, you have a combination of the two. You have a traditional shop premises that has decided to supplement their sales with an internet retail business, this sits side by side the traditional shop. When you are looking for cover, many of the underwriters will not cover anything other than a pure shop on a shop policy. If you ask them for a quote to cover all of your business activities, they may put this on a commercial combined insurance contract, which may have higher minimum premiums.

At businessinsure, we are not saying we could save you hundreds and hundreds of pounds, but as an internet business ourselves, we understand that there are different needs and wants than a traditional shop. You may even trade from home and keep your stock at a different address or even in your garage. We can cover these types of business. If you keep your stock at a fulfilment or pick and pack warehouse, we can cover these businesses. If we can’t, we will do all we can to point you in the right direction to find a quote/

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Unoccupied commercial property insurance quotes – quick and cheap-ish…

Saturday, January 14th, 2012

Unoccupied commercial property insurance quotes are not cheap. There is no getting away from the fact that insurers penalise you in two ways when you are looking to get quotes. Over the years, all of the business insurance companies collate statistics. They also have the ability to share and use statistics from many other bodies, whether for the insurance industry, fire prevention or loss adjusting professions. Everyone you speak to in the insurance world will tell you that empty properties are more susceptible to losses than occupied properties. It is, statistically, the same story year in year out. I have been working in this industry for just over 25 years and every insurer I have ever worked with or for has adopted the same approach.

The first one is not to touch this type of business. The second one is to underwrite unoccupied business property insurance, but with caution. I can guarantee you that hen’s teeth would appear before you would find an insurer that offers a scheme to underwrite all types of unoccupied properties. Every single risk is to be considered on it’s merits. An unoccupied building in one street could be completely different to a very similar looking one in the next street.

When you want to get a quote, as with every type of business, you need to speak to an independent business insurance broker. They will then look around for you. Going back to the heading of this blog, you are never going to get a quote that is cheap. You can certainly get one that is very, very expensive. This is because the insurers are really saying that they do not want the risk.

To get a quote that is somewhere in he middle, nearer to the cheap, you need to speak to us. Unoccupied residential insurance quotes can be purchased for around 0.20% of the buildings sum insured, this can increase to 0.5 or 0.6% for some of the higher risk empty buildings quotes, such as pubs, hotels and other licensed trades.

Posted in business insurance broker, unoccupied building insurance, unoccupied buildings insurance, unoccupied commercial building insurance, unoccupied property insurance | Comments Off

Two tier pricing for business insurance

Friday, January 6th, 2012

Anyone in business will know, and understand, that most industries offer a two tier type of pricing. Gaining a new customer is more expensive than keeping a customer. This applies particularly to all types of financial services, none more so than the purchasers of annual insurance policies.

Many moons ago I worked for one of the larger, direct only, personal lines insurers. We sold home and motor only in those days. This was before the internet became as readily accessible as it is today and all sales were from a mixture of advertising and solus mailings. All customers purchased an annual policy and, at that time in the late 1990’s we were working on an acquisition cost of £50 per customer. We accepted that whatever was spent on advertising and mailings, we could take a hit of £50 per new customer. Now,with policies for home insurance at the time costing on average £125 per annum, there was no profit margin whatsoever. What we wanted was the customer to stay with us for at least 3 years. If they did not make a claim in that period of time, then the insurers would start to return a profit on that particular customer. We did this in two ways. Firstly, there were no advertising costs to renew the cover each year and secondly, increases were applied at each renewal. Nothing too high though, increases of 3-5% were usually applied, in addition to index-linking. Over two or three years, this meant that a customer was paying, excluding index-linking, about 8% (on the rating applied) to when they were accepted as a new business customer.

What this means, is that as the years go by, the longer you stay with any particular insurer, the more likely you are to be paying more than you would as a new customer. This is where the phrase two tier pricing comes from. Not only do insurers accept that there is a new business acquisition cost, they also have to price competitively to get the business in the door. Now, they would be fools to sell you a new policy for £300 one year and then offer to renew the next at £400. But, what happens if they offer to renew at £317? The chances are that most people will renew it, then the next year is offered at £330.00 etc etc. Over the years, because of your loyalty, you may be penalised.

But, and it really is a huge but, this does not happen in every situation. In particular, if you deal through an independent business insurance broker, they simply cannot get away with adding extra prices on year after year. Customers get wise to this and it goes against the very grain of what we do, which is to service you the customer.

You can, if you wish, chop and change your business insurance arrangements year in, year out. But, this is an awful lot of work for you every twelve months and you may find that eventually you run out of insurers to go to. There are less
commercial insurers than you think out there who can offer decent cover at a decent price. The best thing you can do is to work with a broker and get them to do all of the searching around for you.

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2012 – business insurance premiums continue to increase

Wednesday, January 4th, 2012

As a business insurance broker, we have to balance the insurers rhetoric, about premium increases, with public perception that you can always get a bargain if you look around long enough. Over the past three or four years, insurers have been hit with the perfect storm elements of reduced customer base, reduced investment income and increased costs of losses. As a result, they are looking to make up for their under-pricing over the years by putting through above inflation increases on all classes of business.

If you watch the television or read the papers or the net, you will always fund someone that advocates shopping around. Bargains are there to be had apparently. But, when you are looking at a physical product, such as a branded pair of trainers or a television, you know what you are getting. Whether you buy the product from retailer A, B or C, you will get the same thing. The differences may be in the terms of the warranty provided, but the actual product is identical.

Contrast this with a business insurance policy, and the waters get a little bit murky. What we mean by this, is that unless you purchase an identical policy from the same insurer then you are always going to get differences. We have said this before, long and hard, that this is where you need a broker. A brokers role is to act for you, the customer, and to look for the best deal available, price, cover and service wise. We have one insurer, that we no longer deal with. Their prices were good, their products were good, but their claims service was terrible. If they were not looking to repudiate a claim, they would spend way, way too long sorting the claim out.

But what is to stop you dealing with this company on a direct basis? Nothign unfortunately. They sell the same products over the net and I fear for any customer that does not have a broker to fight their corner in the event of a loss.

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Taking on employees and getting employers liability insurance

Wednesday, December 28th, 2011

Given that 2011 did not really deliver any real growth changes compared to 2010, most UK businesses are looking froward to 2012 with a bit of trepidation. Whilst it is difficult to read the signs in advance, it really does not look like we are going to get a huge amount of growth for the whole of next year. There are doom mongers out there who have been predicting, some would say wishing for, a double dip recession. Of course we have come close to this, but so far not yet.

This is not to say that everything out there is doom and gloom though, there are some positives and UK plc continues to prove it is as resilient as ever. Many businesses are continuing to fight through the pain and are showing some signs of high singles and lose double digit percentage growth. But, with the growth, comes the responsibility. If you have been operating as a sole trader, you may find that the only way that you can deal with the growth is to employ someone. Going from working on your own to employing even just one person is a huge, huge step from any business. There are legal responsibilities out there, for which you can find ample advice and help on through some of the UK governments websites.

One of the things you will need to get, is employers liability insurance. It is not a nice to have, but is something that the law of the land states you must have in force or ou could face a fine. The current figure is up to £2,500 per day that you do not have valid cover. In reality, you are given the opportunity to prove this cover in the event of a Health and Safety visit. But, if you want to get the cover in place, before you are forced to do so, then you have an army at your disposal.

That army are the thousands of independent business insurance brokers, ready to provide you with a competitively priced quote and policy. If you need the cover, give us a call.

Posted in business insurance broker, employers liability insurance, employers liability insurance act 1969 | Comments Off

Commercial property owners insurance – loss of rent

Friday, December 23rd, 2011

When looking for a commercial property owners insurance quote, you tend to have two options available as far as adding loss of rental income is concerned. Certain insurers will include this cover as standard, for a percentage, usually 20, of the total sum insured. For others, you need to actually declare a loss of rental income to include this cover.

Before we discuss the differences, a quick note on exactly what loss of rental income is. If you, or a business, owns an asset in the form of a building, you are usually looking to rent this and receive income. The rental income is known as the yield, or earnings. The hope of course is that a combination of increasing value of the property and rental income exceeds the cost of any financing or loan that is taken out to purchase the property. Given that the first has almost been non-existent in the past four years, it is even more important to ensure adequate insurance cover for the latter.

If there is a fire, for example, your tenant will have to move out and more than likely cancel the tenancy agreement they have with you and take out another one. As you are unable to let the property, you are not fulfilling this side of the contract and your tenant is quite entitled to go elsewhere. Therefore, you are left with a property that you are not receiving any rent for. It needn’t just be a fire, it could be a flood, or burst pipe that causes your tenant to move out. This can take any number of months and sometimes years to resolve.

This is where you really need to speak to an independent business insurance broker to ensure that you have adequate protection in the form of rent paid. Certain policies that only offer a 12 month indemnity period, will only pay rent for the maximum period of one year. When you think about a disaster, with a property destroyed the time taken to clear the site, get architects, surveyors and local authorities involved and renewed planning permission and then get the property built – it can take over twelve months. You need to ensure you have cover for this extended period of time.

Posted in business insurance broker, commercial building insurance, commercial buildings insurance, commercial property insurance, commercial property insurance quote, commercial property owners insurance | Comments Off

Public liability insurance

Tuesday, December 20th, 2011

Public liability forms part of the law of tort. This relates to civil wrongs, as opposed to criminal wrongs. Someone that suffers a tortious injury is usually entitled to claim damages for injuries suffered. This is of course just a simplification, but it’s aim is to show that public liability is governed by parts of UK law. As with most aspects of the law, judgements are based, in the main, on a mix of two things. Firstly, existing legislation and secondly precedents that have been set. We hear in the news of some law dating back to the 18th Century, for example, that is still in force. If a judgement is pursued under this law, it is up to the judge to balance on the one hand an antiquated piece of legislation and on the other, any judgements that have been made based on that law. The intention being that, on balance, the law is equally applied to one and all.

Public liability is the same. In theory, you can only be held liable if there is some proof of negligence. There are certain cases where you do not even need to be proven to be negligent, but mainly there has to be proof. Whether we all think it is for the good of the country or not, the UK was opened up to make it easier for the person in the street to pursue valid legal action. Certain solicitors have taken this just a bit too far. Again, we read in the news of some action that has been taken which 99 people out of 100 would say is just a joke but they are successful. This is why businesses need to have public liability insurance. There is no legal requirement, usually, to have this cover in force.

However, it is another one of our sensible and prudent covers to have. One of the main benefits of having this cover, is that the spurious claims can also be covered. What this means is that if you have a formal claim made against you, your insurers will deal with this and decline it on your behalf. We see the solicitors letters on a regular basis and if you are happily running your business and then receive a 28 page letter accusing of you x and asking you to prove y and respond by z, it can be very daunting and intimidating. Sometimes deliberately so. This is where you want the reassurance of having a robust policy in place. The other thing you want, and we can offer you, is a good business insurance broker that you can pass everything to and to deal with on your behalf.

Posted in business insurance broker, business insurance quote, public liability insurance | No Comments »

Christmas special offers for business insurance?

Thursday, December 15th, 2011

There are certain industries, Christmas tree and cracker suppliers being two of the obvious ones, that are a bit busy at this time of year. Come January, they can breathe a small sigh of relief, hopefully have a bit of a holiday and then build up to 2012. Other industries, particularly financial services, tend to quieten down at this time of year. There are not many people looking for a business insurance quote at this time of year. But, this does not mean to say that there are not people out there looking.

For Businessinsure, we had rather humble beginnings back in 2001. Gradually, as we have grown we know which months are busier, for us. The least busy is December, which in a way is quite good because we can deal adequately with the weather related claims that we tend to get from December through to February/March time. But, even with this being a quieter month, we are still busy if you get my drift. With talk of exiting recessions, entering recessions, double dip recessions, flat growth, negative growth, no growth and some growth, everyone with an ounce of sense is looking to re-price every product and service they buy.

Staff are, and always will be the be all and end all of the financial services industry. As a business insurance broker, we rely on our staff. We have actually done well in the past few years, with continued year on year growth. We have read reports in the press of other brokers reducing pay for staff. This has to be the absolute last measure because, believe it or not, it is not the staffs fault that times are tough.

So, if you are following the model we have, which is to ensure that your staff are hopefully OK, then you may need to look at other areas where you can save money. If you have a business insurance renewal due in December, believe you me, now is the time to get this quoted. If you are profitable, on the insurance front, then there is a broker out there (why not try Businessinsure…..) who can get you an absolutely cracking deal. We are getting daily calls from the commercial insurance companies looking for new business as their year ends are fast approaching. Now is the time to bag yourself a bargain.

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Liability insurance – in isolation

Tuesday, December 13th, 2011

Commercial and business insurance companies will, very rarely, offer a single type of insurance on a separate contract. What normally happens is that the different types of cover are packaged together into single contracts. Think of your car policy, you do not buy a separate cover for your windscreen, for third party liability, for legal expenses or for damage to the car or it’s contents. Instead, the insurers wrap it all up and sell it as one policy.

It is the same with most types of business insurance, you can get packages for pubs, shops, hotels, restaurants, offices, salons, hairdressers and many others. But, there are some businesses that really do not want, or need, one of these packages. The package policy tends to include cover for stock and contents and goods in transit and money and business interruption and of course, many others! Some just need their basic liability covers, usually to comply with their legally required covers, such as employers liability insurance or to comply with a contract.

Nowadays, if you are supplying to, or working for, a larger firm, it is more and more likely that they will insist on you having, and indeed providing proof, of liability insurance. The reason behind this is, if there is a problem with the product that you supply to the supermarket, their product liability insurers, for example, want to be able to recoup any claims payments that they have made. Therefore, when you enter into a contract to supply, a supermarket for example, they will usually insist on you providing cover for employers, public and products liability. This is what the layman would call liability insurance on its own, the insurers call it the much more grand, combined liability insurance in isolation.

Although insurers like to package their products, you can still buy a combined liability insurance, which contains the three main covers. You have to be very careful about whether you choose liability cover on its own, or with a package. It may be tempting to take out the cheaper cover, especially in this day and age. But think about the last two winters and the destruction caused by burst pipes. Plenty of businesses lost all their stock and were very thankful that they had bought decent insurance cover. The common theme through all of the Businessinsure blogs continues, always, always speak to an independent business insurance broker about whether or not you need, or should have, basic or more comprehensive cover.

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Property owners insurance – full knowledge of the construction materials

Thursday, December 8th, 2011

With all the emphasis given to the Financial Services Authority and the pressure on business insurance brokers to act professionally and treat customers fairly, we are still amazed at how many businesses approach us for quotations without full details of the insurance they require.

As the owner of the property, it is their responsibility to provide us with a current rebuild cost for the property, as opposed to basing the quote on last years renewal premium and sums insured when looking for a property owners insurance quote. You would think, but it is not always the case, that a property owner would know the age of the property and also the type of the construction of the walls, floors and roofs.

A commercial insurance company, when providing a quote, will need to know if there is any element of flat concrete or flat felt on timber roof. Where there are flat roofs, terms and conditions will apply to claims and/or losses relating to the roof. These include annual inspection clauses and repairs and many will exclude storm or water damage arising from flat roofs, don’t get caught out. When you approach us for a property or business insurance quote with buildings, we will need to know if there is any element of flat roof. Even if this is just 10% of the overall roof area. We will always aim to obtain a range of property owners quotations to ensure the best terms are found for our clients.

Another point that insurers will need to be fully aware of is whether there are any composite panels in the building. This usually only applies to food processing and cold storage plant. However, modern buildings are now more likely to include pre-formed panels with insulation built in to try and reduce the heating costs. You need to know what the material is, whether polystyrene, Rockwool or similar or some other material. Every insurance policy is based on the principle of utmost good faith, you must declare the full facts of the risk to insurers. If you fail to declare composite panelling, which can represent a higher risk of fire, then your insurance policy may not pay out in the event of a claim for fire.

You should always speak to an independent business insurance broker who will go through steps to gain the required information from you, to present to a range of insurers to get you the best terms at the best price.

Posted in business insurance, business insurance broker, commercial buildings insurance, commercial property insurance, commercial property insurance quote, commercial property owners insurance | Comments Off